Originally Posted by ultramarina
Also, I think it's important to keep in mind that academics are the primary purpose of school.

The founding fathers apparently wanted a public school system to create an educated citizenry-- i.e. not only that the citizens would know things, but that they would also be moved to use what they knew for the good of community and country. I won't argue with you that academics are a primary purpose of schooling, but I think they are not the only primary purpose. A lot goes on in an education, IMO.

Obviously, there is a lot of room to differ on this point.

DeeDee